Advice for New Applicants

[ChemPharm77]

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Hello to those in pharmacy school and to those about to begin. Looking back on your experiences (during the application process and your first year), do you have any advice for people who are applying?

 

[hye345]

I applied last year, and will be a P1 this fall. Here are some general guidelines I would follow (some of which I wish I had 😡 )

1. Unless your stats are terrible (under a 3.0 GPA, and/or under a 70 PCAT), you should apply to schools in 'batches', rather than all at once. Apply for your first choices first. I say this because several schools are known to have a very quick turnaround time in terms of extending an interview, and hearing back afterwards. Therefore, if you are lucky enough to get interviewed and accepted into your first choice early, you could save a lot of time and money by skipping the others all-together.
2. This one is pretty specific, but it happened to me, and could have had massive implications: check your spam folder for interview invites. My top choice sent me an interview invite, and I responded one day shy of the deadline because somehow it had been routed to my spam folder without my knowledge.
3. I'm sure this has been said, but check the interview feedback on this site for questions that were asked of other applicants before you. Try to have a general answer for each question. For me, I typed out the questions, and underneath each, a rough outline of my answer in bullet points. Then, I would answer the questions out loud, making sure I touched on each point.
4. When you arrive for the interview, don't think about the actual interview (assuming you already prepped for it), just try to enjoy the day, taking in the school and what they have to offer. Make smalltalk with the other applicants, it helps to get the edge off.
5. Finally, when actually interviewing, don't forget to build rapport with your interviewers. Build bridges of commonality, let them see your human side.

 

[anchoi]

I applied last year, and will be a P1 this fall. Here are some general guidelines I would follow (some of which I wish I had 😡 )

1. Unless your stats are terrible (under a 3.0 GPA, and/or under a 70 PCAT), you should apply to schools in 'batches', rather than all at once. Apply for your first choices first. I say this because several schools are known to have a very quick turnaround time in terms of extending an interview, and hearing back afterwards. Therefore, if you are lucky enough to get interviewed and accepted into your first choice early, you could save a lot of time and money by skipping the others all-together.
2. This one is pretty specific, but it happened to me, and could have had massive implications: check your spam folder for interview invites. My top choice sent me an interview invite, and I responded one day shy of the deadline because somehow it had been routed to my spam folder without my knowledge.
3. I'm sure this has been said, but check the interview feedback on this site for questions that were asked of other applicants before you. Try to have a general answer for each question. For me, I typed out the questions, and underneath each, a rough outline of my answer in bullet points. Then, I would answer the questions out loud, making sure I touched on each point.
4. When you arrive for the interview, don't think about the actual interview (assuming you already prepped for it), just try to enjoy the day, taking in the school and what they have to offer. Make smalltalk with the other applicants, it helps to get the edge off.
5. Finally, when actually interviewing, don't forget to build rapport with your interviewers. Build bridges of commonality, let them see your human side.

It is really good advice. Thanks

 

[Corpseman]

The interview is nothing more than a formal conversation....relax.

 

[pipersnap]

Bump. I've already checked other threads, but is 5 pharmacy schools a good number to apply to in a first "batch"? Or more?

 

[Twentytwelve2]

My biggest issue was falling asleep the night before interview day... I am not even sure how to give advice on that. It was so difficult for me to calm down and focus on sleeping because my imagination was going wild. I thought about the interview day and visualized myself sitting in the room with the interviewer and rehearsing the answers with them..

Does anyone else have this issue? I guess you can workout or wake up earlier than u normally would so that u get extra sleepy the night before interview.

Anyways. I ended up receiving 5 hours of sleep that night and I had a headache and my concentration was lacking. I felt it too when writing the essay and throughout the interview day, I was YAWNING and just felt awful....

I ended up on high w/l and got accepted.

Didn't happen during my second interview though. Think I got rid of the anxiety by then because I knew what to expect. Did muuuch better and got accepted there too.